Portrait of Kim Yu

This is a portrait of Kim Yu (1653-1719), a scholar-official of the mid-to-late Joseon period, painted in the half-right-facing, full-length seated format wearing an official robe (dallyeong) that was most popular in the early eighteenth century. An inscription in the upper right reads 'Portrait of Master Kim, Geomjae, painted at the age of sixty-four,' indicating that it depicts him at sixty-four, in 1716, the forty-second year of King Sukjong. The decorative fur draped over the chair is not the round-spotted pattern of leopard skin but the long-striped pattern of tiger skin; the tiger's face is shown just peeking out at the centre of the footstool, while the two paws are prominently displayed on either side of it. The armrests of the chair are sharply curved and rendered with no sense of three-dimensionality at all - features typical of portraits from the early eighteenth century. Not only is this a relatively rare example of a full-length seated portrait in official robe from the 1710s, but it is also of outstanding pictorial skill and artistic quality, and is in good condition. Moreover, few other examples show the most typical style of late Joseon portraiture - the style that became most widespread from the eighteenth century onward - so directly and successfully at such an early date as this portrait of Kim Yu does. Dimensions: 172 x 90 cm (painting), 242.5 x 107 cm (overall).

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongin, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물